By Tony Attwood
If we do nothing, next season will be like this: the anti-Arsenal and their media allies shutting up during the good runs, and then coming out and attacking the manager viciously and remorselessly after any defeat or perceived poor performance.
Yes, the media and the aaa’s combined propaganda efforts this season were brilliant – we must admit that. Arsenal had a superb run early in the season – in fact it went on to 31 January by which time we had suffered just 3 league defeats. Three too many the aaa would say, but given that Chelsea lost five times in the league this season, not too awful within the context.
Then the bad run started, and within days the banners came back and the grim-mouthed non-smilers paraded their banners and mouthed their chants. The media loved it and reported that “Arsenal fans are…” well, whatever we were supposed to be at that moment, even though a blind man with a bucket on his head in a collapsed coalmine after dark could see that the majority in the ground were still supporting the team.
But such was the power of the alliance of the media and the aaa that soon the mood of negativity pervaded, and even nine wins and one defeat in the last ten was not enough to dissuade the haters.
Sadly the club has been here before. We’ve told the Jack Lambert story of how our most brilliant goalscorer of all time was picked on by what Herbert Chapman dubbed the boo-boys. He, like Mr Wenger, spoke out against this viper inside the club, but he too struggled to fight them when the press joined in.
Sadly, by then, Sir Henry Norris, the one chairman of Arsenal who could always be relied upon to take on the media (not to mention anyone else spoiling for a fight) who would always uphold the good name of Arsenal, had gone. Sir Henry’s vitriolic attacks on (for example) the FA for the terrible way it treated Tom Whittaker after he was injured on an FA tour, were something to behold and made him a hero of all Arsenal supporters. Here was a man who stood up in public for Arsenal and everyone knew that the club always had a staunch defender. (And by the way if you are tempted to claim that Sir Henry was a crook, you might want to do your research first – that was a story put about by his enemies, and was certainly not true.)
After Sir Henry, media and fan attacks on Arsenal and Arsenal players grew, as when Jimmy Logie who came under attack in probably the most outrageous and nasty campaign of all in 1953. Tom Whittaker, Logie’s manager took up the fight, and eventually the club arranged for corrective articles and a rebuttal article to appear in press.
Later, as Arsenal historian Jon Spurling recounts, Peter Goring was abused after the Sunderland defeat in 1953 by a fan and for once the player spoke out, saying, “I wasn’t the only player to be confronted in such a way. Some of the other boys also got hassle from fans which wasn’t nice,… some of those fans were very hard to please…”
Spurling also says that on one occasion, “One of Goring’s team mates snapped and told the Daily Mail journalist… that he was “ashamed of the crowd and considered them to most unsporting collection in the country.”
Partially as a result of this, the team broke up and the dark ages of the club began – there were no more trophies until 1969. As the club tried to buy new players they found it increasingly hard as players simply didn’t want to play for Arsenal.
In recent times Amy Lawrence in the Guardian started a vitriolic campaign with the headline, “Kronky and Wenger are too close for Arsenal’s good.” She carried it on remorselessly, and didn’t even apologise when her infamous “Arsenal had only two goalscorers in double figures last season” piece was published and revealed (through a five second analysis) for what it was – a fantasy knocking story whose sole purpose was to be negative about the club.
What would rescue the club, as I have said before, would be a return to the ownership style of Sir Henry Norris who never once was afraid to put his point, and truly could make the supporters feel they were part of a club that would stand up to the establishment.
There are so many more examples of the boo-boys, the media and the aaa destroying Arsenal over and over that I can’t run them all. Jon Sammels was sold to Leicester for £100,000, after becoming a victim of the “boo-boys” in the crowd. He had played 215 league games including in the first Double season but that element in the crowd that Arsenal have suffered from even since Chapman, was out in force, and it was Sammels they went for.
Just occasionally the Board has stood up for the club. As with the Fairs Cup in 1970, when Arsenal began their defence of the trophy on 16 September. The first leg of round 1 ended Lazio 2 Arsenal 2 with Radford scoring both goals, but it was not so much the game that was remembered but rather the fact that after the match the two teams went to have a meal together and a fight broke out. The newspapers went berserk on the issue.
As a result the talk was all about events in Italy and the club was not at all impressed. Indeed in a move that is very unlikely to be seen again, the Arsenal programme published a letter seriously and directly criticising the Evening Standard’s reporting of the club. Something we never see any more.
If only even that modest protest could be seen today, let alone the robust nature of Sir Henry Norris’ approach then we would stand a chance against the media and their aaa chums. Yet since his demise the club has allowed the tales of Sir Henry’s alleged crooked methods at getting Arsenal into the first division to proliferate. It took the Arsenal History Society – which receives no support from the club – to show definitively what an utter pack of lies that story is. (10 March 1919, Arsenal elected. Find the bribery and get the reward).
And in case you think that Sir Henry was kicked out for stealing money from the club – that’s another myth. He was unhappy with what Fulham directors had said about him, and sued. League rules say that one club director cannot sue another, so he was forced to resign as chair of Arsenal.
What we need is a strong and vigorous board that stands up for our manager and takes on the press, and it has to start now. Otherwise we will never see off this menace in our midst.
- José Mourinho on Twitter in March, “Chelsea will win the FA Cup. Spurs will win the title.”
- It is such a shame that the FA Cup is not a trophy, because…
- The FA Cup Final. The clubs’ records for April & May (remarkably similar!) and the Arsenal team
Hyperbole aside, how wrong are the media wrong to write negatively about Arsenal? You can’t deny that the club is sliding slowly backwards in terms of competitiveness and that that responsibility rests with the manager and the board.
This gradual and repetitive decline has created a poisonous atmosphere around the club which isn’t healthy for anyone. Wenger needs to walk now while he can leave on a high and get the plaudits and respectful send off he deserves.
I totally agree with the last paragraph.
The menace in our mist,are people who are sick of seeing the same mistakes made over and over again,which lead to The Arsenal failing to challenge for the Premiership year after year and embarrassed in the Champions League in predictable fashion.The Board cannot brain wash people(apart from newer kind of fan who somehow found that they quite liked football in their 30’s and going to “The Ems” on Saturday with Tarquin is a rather jolly idea).Those of us who have been alienated in our own ground by a sterile and often poisonous atmosphere where the Johny Come latelys,have replaced scores of lifelong Arsenal fans,mostly due to ridiculously high ticket prices,do not all share the view that sitting down paying up and shutting up,is the right thing to do,when you can see glaring errors being made all too often.I love The Arsenal but despise our Board which does contain a single individual who knows The Arsenal way and this season’s farcical lack of support for Arsene or willingness to seek a better alternative (believe me they are out there)has been proof of that.
Should have read”does not contain”
David Hillier: what you say is fine… until the people supposedly protesting against what you perceive as high ticket prices turn up and pay their money and protest in the ground. Where on earth is the logic in that?
Nick I think that the decline in terms of league results compared with the early years of Wenger’s reign is clear, and its cause can be debated. I just don’t think that taking a protest against it into the ground will do anything other than heighten the decline. The problem is that if Mr Wenger leaves, we might well end up with a manager of lesser ability, because many established quality managers will take a look at the protests going on in the ground and the total negativity in the press and think,”no thanks.”
I think the way to defeat the media is for Arsenal to leak false information to the worst journalists and blogs and then come out later with the true infomation. It might take a couple of years but it would work. Arsenal need to wise up to all the evil around them and have a plan for dealing with it instead of letting the media call the shots. They should get rid of their current PR people and employ people who are smart enough to handle the British media a the AAA.
I see it as a war that we need to win. It is a war of ideas not football but it is crucial to the success of the club.
I didn’t realise there was a history to anti-Arsenal sentiments! At some point, I wondered if the “hatred” was just against Wenger or the entire brand called Arsenal. The commentators, the pre-match and half-time “chief priests” are practically all guilty. My response would be to strengthen the team by tightening a bit at the back and playing with a little more spirit – like in yesterday’s finals.
There is no clear decline in league results.
There are a few league in the world, which are one team leagues. Scotland was one this year.
There are some two team leagues, Spain is a common example.
The EPL has by and large been a 4 team league. It is looking like it is becoming a 5 or 6 team league.
Arsenal has been in this top tier since the EPL started, and it is still in this top tier.
Finishing place within the top tier is in large part determined by factors outside of the control of the players. Luck is part of it. It is only the 1 team leagues where finishing place in the top tier is known, as there is only a single way to arrange 1 team.
Each of these leagues has a “rest of the pack” tier. Finishing place in the rest of the pack is again largely outside of the players control. There are teams relegated, and I think by and large the teams relegated are chosen by which ones stumble upon a losing streak and don’t break out of it soon enough.
Again unjustified attacks on the one supportive journalist we have.
Take a look at this article by Amy Lawrence (that offends you so much) and say honestly that you don’t think it is supportive of Arsene Wenger’s complaint that his team was not scoring enough goals. You’ll probably take it down & bar me, but I’d consider that worthwhile if just a handful of people read it. And if you leave it up I’ll consider you a decent person.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/13/arsenal-arsene-wenger-big-spender-transfer-market-football
I just feel the win and performance yesterday puts a better light on the summer,dont care what anyone says about us, yesterday was special and the team/club will benefit
Tony,
Again you are so right. It seems to me that, perhaps, we (if I may) have been too tolerant. I abhor the pathetic use of the media (who will of course print pretty much anything that sells copy as this is their job) by a few banner holding morons that show neither respect nor truly support the team. Classic: new arrivals in the row ahead of us in the North Bank protesting against AW during games when bothered to turn up. Of course, nowhere to be seen when support is essential. Classic: morons told not to put up banner for their own safety at away game. The “Moaner” refers to split between fans and hence AW should go! What split? Between those of us who support the team during a game and those with a dubious self-serving agenda? The banner morons have dug a hole and should stop digging. As far as I am concerned such people can leave the club. Protest outside games, of course. During, never. What are the people who can not go to away games to believe? There are not many of us on the away scheme or others who can get tickets to such games. So the morons ably supported by the copy sellers continue to damage the spirit of the team. Enough is enough.
There is and has been no decline, it’s the negative atmosphere that the fans create, that is making things worse. If you have a work place that is as hostile as arsenal stadium, how would you give your best. How can you be calm to produce a good display when all hell is fighting against you? IN OTHER WORDS, 90% of arsenals downfall is the fans. look at Tottenham, they are becoming better because, even without trophies for so many the fans create a good atmosphere and environment for the players to thrive
@Leon. To be fair I think Amy Lawrence’s article isn’t supportive of Arsene Wenger’s management at all. Her article references a transfer splurge in 1997,his first full season after he joined, and compares a failure to emulate that ‘succesful transfer spurge’ in subsequent seasons. She also criticises Wenger’s trust in Sanchez’s skills as a forward, suggesting we needed a recognised centre forward, which is ironic given his goal scoring prowess this season. All in all it’s an article cobbled together to ride a negative wave on the principle that those bleating and whining will always get more attention than reasoned pragmatists.
OT: Arsenal Ladies
It’s not on the Arsenal.com website. Something else seems to have their attention. 🙂
The ladies were away to ManCity, and won 0-1.
One way to defeat the anti Arsenal bias, for me anyway, is to discover what is at the root of it and bring it out into the open. I believe the Board are terrified to go against the establishment, the establishment tools: the main stream media and their thinly disguised offshoots.
Throwing the truth into proceeding would shake things up.
First of all, the media is relying on the freedom of information act in it’s dissemination of news, article publications, stories, information and editorials. These duties accorded to the media by the Law can’t be taken away from it as one wishes to. Nevertheless, if the media erred in it’s publications to the extends of grossly offending a person or a party, it’s left for the person or the party to seek for redress from the media outfit. On not being satisfied with the redress it’s gotten, the media could be sued for liable by the offended person or the party concerned.
As for the protesting Arsenal fans tagged the”AAA” who started protesting or will start protesting whenever Arsenal failed to win the Premier League title in particular after a very longtime, whereas they felt Arsenal should have won it many times over within a certain period of time if certain things at Arsenal were put right in their own thinking, I think since Arsenal is like the British Parliament function in a Democratic dispensation, where we have the governing party and the opposition party in the Conservative Party in one side and the Labour Party and the Liberal Party in the other side in the Parliament. In the case of Arsenal FC, Parliamentary Democracy is something that can be said to be existing at the Arsenal as it looks to have a parliament at least for now, where we have the AKBs – The Arsene Knows Best group in one side of the Arsenal Parliament(Support) and the AOBs – The Arsene Out Best group in the other side of the Arsenal Parliament.
I think this parliamentary democracy kind of support that’s appeared to be existing at Arsenal for long and peculiar to it is unique. And for democracy’s sake, the Arsenal Democratic Parliament as it’s being constituted now by the AKBs and AOBs better known as the “AAA” should not be broken up for any dictatorial reason. But should be tolerated to productively continued. I believe it can only bring progress to the Arsenal board, the Gunners’ manager and the Gunners themselves as any opposition lawfully advanced by the ”AAA” in the course to see Arsenal win the PL and CL titles soon will make the Arsenal owner, the Arsenal board, the Gunners’ manager and the Gunners to situp and not rest on their oars.
Gord..
Fantastic goal from Jordan Nobbs too. 🙂
Samuel..
Maybe we should let the fans elect the Manager, that would be true Democracy.
Having said that, look at the Prime Minister we’ve got, so, after all, maybe not 😉
“Again unjustified attacks on the one supportive journalist we have.”
Where’s you evidence of that fact?
Oliver Holt was supporting Arsenal yesterday. I saw his tweets.
I don’t think Amy Lawrence supports us at all. There is always a ‘but’ in her articles. She sets us up with half hearted support and then slams us later. Compare her and the Ian Wrights of the Arsenal community to the Scouser and Manc supporters and whatnot who continuously spread their support of their club.
No one is arguing that we could be doing better…we have not won the league since 2004…fact. However it is NOT A FACT that we are on a dangerously downward spiral. This is not borne out statistically, yet ‘journalists’ like Amy Lawrence continuously say this or words to that affect.
Oliver Holt on Twitter is a bit different to Oliver Holt in the Mail.
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/amylawrence
On a positive note, to put the last 25 years in perspective. When Spurs won their 8th FA Cup, we were on 4 cups. Now we are on 13. Spurs was on 2 league championships, we were on 10. Now we are on 13, Spurs is on…2.
Leon I have read the article you cite and I really don’t get your point.
You have got round this site’s regulation about the “you probably won’t print this” type of comment by changing the language, but as for the Guardian article, sorry but I can’t see how it supports your point.
In essence I feel (and yes it is simply my opinion) that the infamous “only two” article was unacceptable from such an experienced journalist because the word “only” was either there because she was ignorant of the number of goals scored by players at other clubs (utterly unforgiveble in an experienced journalist with such a reputation) or she was deliberately seeking to put Arsenal and Wenger down through a manipulative use of the language (ditto).
Tony
Amy is supporting Wenger in his complaint that his team are not scoring enough goals, she’s not criticising.
“That’s one of the domains where last year we were not the most efficient,” Wenger says. “We were the highest team in expected chances created. We were the highest team in quality of chances created in the final third. And we were not at our level in the finishing qualities and that’s where we want to improve.”
So why do you have problems with her saying “only two players?….ten goals”?
There’s no requirement for her to make comparisons with other teams, because Wenger wasn’t comparing to other teams was he.
Anyway, why do you continuously make such a big issue out of it? It’s hardly scathing is it?
Us and United where battling it out for superiority then the money arrived at Chelsea.
We started to struggle to win the PL because we where out ‘moneyed’ by those two.
Then the money arrived at City.
This just made it even harder. Not only where these Clubs out muscling us in the transfer market but they where often as not taking our best players.
Those events, allied to the fact we had a new stadium to pay for, not surprisingly, saw us fall behind. But despite that we’ve still managed to stay ahead of the rest, despite many of ‘the rest’ spending far more than us during our barren 10 year spell.
We fell to 4th in the pecking order purely on the basis of financial strength in the transfer market, and there we have stayed. In fact we have progressed from winning nothing to winning 5 trophies in 4 years. How that equates to:
“This gradual and repetitive decline”
I’ll never know.
Maybe you can expand on that Nick?
I didn’t find the amy lawrence ‘only two’ article that offensive on its face. But she is a professional jouranlist. Her job is to find an engaging narrative and then run with it. It doesn’t matter whether it is fair or true or even if you like it, as long as you click.
What can be done? One could hammer her with personal invective on Twitter and on the website. From what I read journalists are surprisingly sensitive types. If enough people people join in she might be run off. Seems a little base though doesn’t it?
I think the best solution to the MSM is to starve them. Stay away when you can. Install adblockers when you visit. Support the blogs listed on Highbury Library by linking to them and whitelisting them.
Unfortunately Tony there is no way we can get rid of either the anti-Arsenal bias in the media or the boo-boys in the ground. The only way that will be put to bed is by Arsenal winning the league and winning it in style. We probably also need to win a European trophy (or two). The press were quite happy to laud the ‘invincible’ and praise Wengerball at its height.
Whatever we think of Arsenal in 2016/17 its not as fun to watch as it was in Henry’s pomp. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy watching us and give the team 100% support inside (and outside) the stadium.
As for pleasing the AAA or at least shutting them up well, the above would probably do that at least until we stop winning. But the bottom line is that trying to reason with people who are set on an idea or their version of reality is fairly pointless. After all, the country is about to re-elect a Tory government run by a woman who lies, changes her mind, lies some more, and whose husband stands to profit directly from brexit.
People are stupid – (some) Arsenal fans are more stupid than others
Not taking my own advice, I read the coverage in the Guardian and was struck by the tone. We didn’t win so much as Chelsea lost and oh yeah, our club is still torn by controversy and self doubt.
At first it was infuriating, but then I realized this was the tone of someone who has publicly said one thing then has to weasel out after being proven wrong. Arsene pissed in their narrative cornflakes and now they have to eat up.
I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again [with caps lock on]
STOP READING THE NEWSPAPERS, IT ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM
My memory is that the press were not at all positive about Arsenal during the Invincible season, any more than they were of the Bertie Mee 1971 Double team. Their preference for Man Utd and their nostalgia about Liverpool’s achievements and (even more historic imagination) those of Spurs was evident throughout that period. Most comments about Arsenal were along the lines of the “nth red card of Wenger’s reign” variety and our (foreign) players inability to mix it against Bolton etc on a wet winter night in the north.
There was no press outrage about Riley’s display in the notorious Game 50, just more of the nonsense that the way to stop Arsenal was to get in their faces because they couldn’t handle the physical side of football.
The positive comments about the Invincibles are only made now, long after the event, because they are part of the narrative that Wenger has lost it, Arsenal are in decline, the current squad of players is inferior etc. etc.
The British media (and Fox), for the most part, is disreputable and fairly disgusting, whether on football or wider politics. Shame that more people cannot see it for what it is.
In my humble opinion,the fact that Leicester won the League last year and the fact that Sp*rs finished so far in front of us in the Premiership,nearly puts your “moneyed out it”,argument to bed.
@blacksheep,
Boycotting the press spreading fake/slanted news, that is an idea.
pleasing the aaa is not possible (that is what I think) based on reading their arguments.
For years 4th was not a trophy.
Then we started winning the FA Cup and suddendly it was not a trophy anymore.
Do you remember the Charity shield we won 2 years ago ? well, in the backpages of one of the big papers. When MU won it, that was front page worthy. Must I say more ?
I’ll agree that in 2014 and 2015, we’d had teams not as formidable then this year, yet after being down 2.0 after 8 minutes, no one was betting a penny on a reversal of fortune and the aaa were sharpening their knifes.
This year, as Mr Wenger said in the press conference, we did beat City and the champions Chelsea one after the other.
Yet still, the FA Cup is not a trophy or rather we stole our victory – as if others during past years did not ‘steal’ 3 or 2 points repeatedly from us on ‘strange’ decisions.
The aaa are feeding on themselves, the rpess is encouraging it and go out of their way to do it. We’d be winning the PL and the EL next season, they’d come out saying : well this is the moment to say good bye and thanks for the memories, and by the way, only the intergalactic cup is worth anything. They are not Arsenal fans. They are adversaries or rather, and I am sorry to use that word in a ‘sports’ discussion, ennemies.
Mr Wenger finally admitted how the toxic atmosphere this winter was a drag on the team and the manager.
Do you think messi would be happy to mplay at the Ems ? Or Ronaldo ?
I think Arsenal fans need to stand up to them. Chant louder, support their team, voice their opposition to the aaa, voice their support to the players and the coach much more to drown out their voices.
@DavidHiller, respecfully I disagree : The mention of people coming to the Emirates for the show – what are you complaining about ? The Ems has thousands of seats more then Highbury. It is a revenue Arsenal cannot do without and a financial asset. That people who (maybe) do not qualify as hardcore fans and are ready to pay for higher price seats to take in the show is normal.
Furthermore, UA has repeatedly shown that over a year, Arsenal’s prices are far from the most expensive, that travelling fans enjoy good support which makes it just fake news, or should I say ‘incomplete-news’ or ‘slanted-news’ like Amy Lawrence’s only 2 scorers in 2 digits of last year. Facts are facts. You cannot on the one side use facts where it suits your argument and on the other refuse facts that go against it. As for her argument comparing 1997 to 2017, no mention of the price inflation, of the oligarchs pouring billions over 10 years yet Arsenal still able to keep up. No mention of the fact that ‘newcomers’ to the PL are generally not immediately ‘productive’ and need time to adapt.
I believe City, MU, Chelsea all have websites where you can subscribe to a yearly ticket. They’ll be happy to take your money and win every trophy for you.
Your so right Tony, good article. True Arsenal fans are delighted by yesterdays brilliant display and today feel on top of the world as we should. Not the bitter twisted know everything types alas. I have just looked on that odious site who are supposed to be Gooners but even yesterdays result fails to cheer them. They are so negative and obviously descend from the ones you mention.
I like your thinking Blacksheep.
I actually quite like the media against us because I know it’s fuelled by envy.
The English pundits cannot stop running down our world cup winners etc.
In the end we always rise and prove them wrong.
As for the fans I don’t get it, this is the same Arsenal I have always supported if anything more successful.
Chris,I am sorry but any individual suggesting that a supporter of 50 years old,who went to his first game at Highbury in 1978 and has loved the club for 39 years,has effectively got the choice of supporting another team,clearly does not get it and does not understand the passion involved with supporting the club.In short your suggestion is ridiculous and shows you up to be a little bit naive about what supporting a club should mean to an individual,in my humble opinion.
Chris, this should let you calculate what you want.
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/61922#comment-919003
It has been nice to see pictures, and see Arsenal players smiling.
Santi always seems to be happy, but he looks really happy to be part of things even though he hasn’t been playing for a while.
I seen one nice picture of Mesut smiling. His smiles are more rare than Santi’s.
That’s only because you are taking one issue at a time
@DavidHiller
Ok, accepted. I do not know your personal history with Arsenal.
And there was no will to hurts your feelings.
Yet amidst all the negativity and ‘sabotage’, I’d expect a ture fan to side with the club (players, coach) not the saboteurs.
As for the ‘new’ fans, they are part of the game and need to be integrated – that is how I see it, even if I’m an outside of the country fan not able to attend games form all sorts of practical reasons, the financial one being part of it.
DavidHiller’sSuitcase…
Your first comment @2.44 could have been written about the clubs position in 1978 and you still decided to choose Arsenal to support or Arsenal chose you.
Are your expectations higher now or have you always been critical?
Reading what is being published since last nicht, I see a shift. Now more positive stories come out, yet they always find a negative slant, be in just one sentence or small paragraph.
Never happy.
Yet I am…so screw them all
One day, Tony, you’ll realise that, politics aside, the only agenda that national media has is to sell. Papers. Advertising space. Air time. And bad news sells.
All this moaning about how persecuted Arsenal are. Every club gets it. Bigger clubs more than others. You focus hugely on Arsenal stories, naturally enough, so you imagine that only Arsenal are subject to media negativity. But it’s simply not true.
DavidHillier’sSuitcase
“In my humble opinion,the fact that Leicester won the League last year and the fact that Sp*rs finished so far in front of us in the Premiership, nearly puts your “moneyed out it”,argument to bed.”
Is that supposed to be a serious argument?
So your assertion is that one anomaly in 13 years proves it has nothing to do with the money is it? The fact that the other 12 titles where won by one of Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea means nothing then?
Also, for your information, in the 2 seasons prior to Leicester City winning the Premier league they had a NET spend of £49 Million. Hardly chicken feed is it. Don’t think they did it on a pittance because they did not.
Also, for your information, that £49 Million net Leicester spent is £80 Million, that’s EIGHTY MILLION, more than Arsenals entire net spend over the 9 year period between our last title in ’03 ’04, and the season the shackles where finally off and we purchased Ozil.
Over that 9 year, trophy less period our NET spend was actually a net profit, that’s a PROFIT, of £31 Million.
So you’ve hardly put the ‘moneyed out of it’ argument to bed at all have you.
Similarly, Spurs having ONE half decent season, but still yet another trophy less season, is hardly putting it to bed either is it ?
JimB
Back again I see.
I challenged you the other day when you came out with this a strangely enough you disappeared off the face of the earth.
DavidHiller’s……….
The question you have to ask yourself even if you have been supporting Arsenal since the 70’S is your support do the club any good.
Reading what is being published since last night, I see a shift. Now more positive stories come out, yet they always find a negative slant, be in just one sentence or small paragraph.
Never happy.
Yet I am…so screw them all
@ Backwards Martin
What challenge? I don’t live on this site.
This challange from the 08/05/2017 at 6:08 pm Now slightly updated
Last 4 seasons:
Arsenal
3 FA cup finals, 3 win.
2 Community shield wins.
1 4th, 1 3rd and 1 runner up PL finish.
We had just beaten a £175 Million Manchester United side.
And we get the following, not just from Phil Neville, but ably supported by one of our own, Martin Keown.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39840233.
Show me something even close to that about Spurs or Liverpool, who haven’t won a Cup for how long, let alone a title?
Did you know that TalkSport have run a daily anti Arsenal section for the last 10 years plus? Have you actually ever listened to Talksport? Have you ever listened to Durham?
Do or did you ever read, Howard, Reade, Custis, Beasley et el. Their abuse of Arsenal, and Wenger in particular is relentless.
Even a supposed Arsenal fan such as John Cross consistently criticises.
Tell me one ex Liverpool or Spurs player that criticises there ex Club in the way that Stewart Robson, Paul Merson, Ian Wright, Tony Adams do Arsenal ?
Did you read Tony Adams the other day?
Google Ian Wright criticises Arsenal and see just how many articles pop up.
If you think other teams get the regular unrelenting abuse we do show me.
That’s all I ask, and if you can show me similar amounts of abuse aimed at Spurs and Liverpool then I will apologise.
It is very disappointing that the whingers have been whinging even after we won the Cup. At least Ian Wright posted a tweet of him singing in his car. He is happy!
Maybe if we can persuade people like Ian Wright and Ray Parlour and Martin Keown to be consistently positive it will persuade more of the fans to do the same. Not only be consistently positive but publicise it a lot in every way.
Unfortunately we can’t rely on Thierry Henry, or Lee Dixon, or Alan Smith to do the same. As far as they are concerned their job depends on toeing the line. Just as Amy Lawrence’s does. For that reason, we can’t depend on any journalist.
Apart from that, I agree that the club has to start to make more public statements about the refereeing. Arsene Wenger can’t because he then gets hounded, accused of being a cry baby and fined. But these rich blokes who own the club. What have they got to lose? And surely if it helps their product perform better, it’s in their own interests as well?
I hope Arsene stays, obviously. And I hope he is up front when he is not being supported – whether by the board, the fans or whoever. I am glad he has placed such emphasis on the negativity earlier in the season as a reason for our drop in performance. But I don’t see why he is obliged to put it down solely to uncertainty about his contract. After all, this is not the first season where a section of the fans has behaved like spoilt brats.
Talksport is a wind up station. Adrian Durham doesn’t believe 90% of what he says. His job is to make people angry; get them to phone in; get others to listen. And he’s very good at it. The only reason why he will have persisted with a daily Arsenal wind up is that Arsenal fans continue to fall for it and ring up and listen in their droves. More fool them, I say. It’s got nothing to do with him or his station having a genuine anti Arsenal agenda.
As to other media sources, anyone who has read or watched or listened extensively about Spurs will have seen the proliferation of “bottler” stories, both this season and last – despite the fact that Spurs were the only team on both occasions to make the race for the title at least somewhat interesting and that on neither occasion were Spurs in a position to “bottle” anything, having never led. Last season, Spurs were the pantomime villains for daring to spoil the Leicester “fairytale”. And every season – without fail – the media “sells” half the Spurs team to Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool et al. Or abroad. Not to mention that they also find a new club for our manager. And this goes on every summer, all summer long.
All those hacks that you mention…..they’ve also regularly written negative stories about Spurs. Even the normally excellent David Conn of the Guardian did an appalling hatchet job on the club when writing about the new stadium project a few years ago. I seem to remember this site picking up on it and treating it as gospel when, in truth, it was riddled with inaccuracies and spin.
As to ex players being critical of the club, well there I am at a disadvantage. You see, there aren’t nearly as many former Spurs payers working in the media as there are former Arsenal players. In fact, it is a bone of contention among Spurs fans just how often the likes of Sky have Alan Smith commentating on Spurs games and someone like Thierry Henry as a pundit. Nevertheless, the likes of Jamie Redknapp and Tim Sherwood are often critical about Spurs. Even Glenn Hoddle has been known to have a pop from time to time.
Long story short, I can guarantee you that fans of every Premier League club complain about their treatment at the hands of the media. And you will find comments like Tony’s and yours, about their club being uniquely persecuted, on every message board. My response would be exactly the same as it was on here.
Arsenal are not in decline.
75 points is the exact average number of points that Arsenal have won during Arsene Wenger’s tenure. And the FA Cup was pretty special.
All this despite a bad blip.
As someone else noted, Arsenal only have the 4th highest resources in the PL (and by some distance). I think this is the first season in Wenger’s management where we have finished below “par” (i.e. 4th in recent times). And with the highest ever number of points not to get a CL place.
Just think if our penalty ratio had been proportionate to goals as it should have been, we might have got the 1 or 2 points more that we needed:
Arsenal: 6 pens for/ 10 against.
Liverpool: 8 pens for/ 5 against.
Man City: 9 for/ 4 against.
Sp*rs: 9 for/ 2 against.
And this is just a continuation of the trend that has been ongoing since Riley took over.
Conclusion: we only lost a CL place due to PGMOB bias.
Oh, and plenty of pro-Wenger chanting at Wembley.
I cannot see the amount of points being an argument, it just means points were easier to accumulate this season off the lower teams.
Fifth place got the fifth number of points.
There’s only one Menace that we need to worry about & that is me. I have on almost every occasion pointed to the officiating. Arsenal do not have bad games or periods of poor performances. Most of those are down to bold & shameless cheating by officials.
I do not expect any human being to be able to cope with traffic officials that always hinder progress. Every light going red & the green lights only being shown to opponents with a smile does get morale down. Arsenal have to be diplomatic & not criticise PGMOL or The FA directly. I on the other hand can & do. This bunch of geriatric swine control the peoples game with a level of greed that is second to none.
The Peon has been totally out of order with his disrespectful abuse to me & should be shown a red card by Tony. His mental attitude is wanting. He has never shown true loyalty to the club.
Supporters who do not like the managers position are free to address the club & should not disgrace themselves or the club in public. Write to the club or to Mr Wenger. You will get a response. Posting your bile against our club on bloggs or twitter takes you out of the list of supporters. You become a Piers. A true idiot who might have wealth but certainly has no patriotism or loyalty.
Love the response from Ozil to the ‘experts’. Funny stuff.
https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/mesut-ozil-trolls-football-experts-who-committed-fa-cup-predictions-to-paper-127455
Tony et al –
The most scathing indictment of the Sporting Media is the lack of recognition and respect for Arsene Wenger prioritising the FA Cup every season. That’s why he’s won more of this most English of Football Cups than any other manager. Ironic isn’t it.
Trolling the news.
> Mustafi was spotted alongside fellow absentees Laurent Koscielny and Santi Cazorla at Wembley ahead of the game, with former Gunners midfielder Tomas Rosicky also there to cheer Arsene Wenger’s side on.
—
> Arsenal star playmaker Mesut Ozil has dedicated his sides FA Cup victory to two cancer patients Charlie and Brendan.
> Ozil has worked closely with The Gillingham based-cancer charity ‘My Shining Star.’
> The 28-year-old old previously invited 11-year-old with brain tumour Charlie to the Arsenal v Sunderland game.
> Ozil took to social media after Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Chelsea to post a photo of himself and included the following caption, “This win is also for you, #Charlie and #Brendan. “Keep on fighting, boys!”
– Turkish-Football.com
By the way, horor and desolation…can you believe that ?!?!
We are losing Lucas Perez
Yes, he’s gone
Can you believe it ?
He was spotted going back home to Spain on the first day of holidays.
To the blogettas that can mean only one thing : he is fed-up with AW and wants a transfer.
I mean who else in this world would go on holiday in Spain ?!!?
Nitram,
just read the BBC piece of crap from Neville.
Same story line as the ‘Chelsea never showed up’ story line we’ve been served since Satuurday.
Some things never change.
We have to decide if Arsenal are a top club or not a top club.
If it is not a top club:
Then the performances and results for the last 5-7 years are good, because Arsenal are usually top of the non top clubs list.
If it is a top club:
Then the non-improvement of certain parts of our game demands highlighting.
The stagnancy that has crept in over the last 5-7 years also.
The non existence of fall back plans on the field also.
The mental ability to be ready for a game and have the determination and focus to win also.
We cannot hid behind “being positive” and expect the club to change all by itself.
Clubs do monitor the state of the fans and try to react if possible i would think, as well as the public “appearance” of the club is important to Arsenal.
Those who have no voice when it comes to critising must inevitably just take what is served up day after day year after year, somewhat like what the politicians serve up yearly, pure rubbish.
To be positive all the time is an extreme situation and you are an “extremist”. This is not a natural state for people to be in and is very damaging to oneself.
i believe the media thrive on getting rid of managers i can remember they were also wanting the english manager out and this is the main crux to anti arsenal stuff -most things can be seen in two ways and they alays chose the negative with arsenal the worse journalist in the guardian was barnay ronay one of whose pre final articles was almost child like in its attempt to denigrate arsenal
Now Menace is attempting to hand out red cards. Pressure getting to him?
Seriously, he talks about club loyalty yet has not so far uttered one single word of praise for the team since out wonderful cup final win, instead continuing a rant against the officials.
If he wants respect he should earn it.
Oh yes, and buy a new hat. The one you wore at Wembley was ridiculous.
I think we should all have a bit of sympathy for Victor Moses who wasn’t trying to win a penalty by diving but was simply suffering from tiredness! Headline from The Independent……
‘Victor Moses “was tired and didn’t want to cheat the referee” says Antonio Conte’
Mick
He needed all his energy for his wedding night
JimB
I appreciate your reply but I still think your are kidding yourself if you honestly believe what you are saying.
Taking Durham as an example.
Do you not think if he slagged Spurs off on a daily basis there fans would react just as Arsenal fans do when he slags us off ?
But the whole point is he doesn’t slag Spurs off on a daily basis does he, despite them winning sweet FA for God knows how long? Or Liverpool, or Chelsea or United.
So why Arsenal?
Okay there isn’t as many ex Spurs players in the media, but don’t you think that might have something to do with them being lower profile players than Arsenals, what with them winning sweet FA for so long? But at least the ones that are in the media cast them in a positive light, despite, them winning sweet FA for God knows how long.
But of course there is the odd article critical of every team. It would be ridiculous to suggest otherwise, and I’m not.
But we get it every day, day in, day out.
I live in the London area and every day in the week running up to the final there was a negative article. Do you honestly believe that would of happened if Spurs where in the final, despite them winning sweet FA for….well you get the picture.
The bottom line is you haven’t shown me the abuse other teams get, all you’ve done is make excuses for the abuse we get.
Excuses for Durham.
You don’t even address the fact that the entire station has an anti Arsenal tone every day, or at least did before I decided to stop listening.
You don’t even deny that our ex players slag us off, but try to fob it off by suggesting you WOULD get slagged off in the same way if only you had ex players working in the media to do. A bit of a feeble response, but at least a response.
You can believe me or not but even my friends that support other teams concede that the abuse we get is ridiculous.
But somehow you’ve convinced yourself everyone gets the same abuse that we do so it’s hardly worth continuing with this is it.
The paper I was referring to was the London Evening Standard.
Pat
You’re right. The journalists have to find a balance and can’t be continuously heaping praise on ‘their’ clubs, or they’d soon be out of work.
I think Amy is very fair in her articles, not just to Arsenal but Spurs too.
Most bloggers are wannabe journalists. Just ask Tim of 7amkickoff.
Peon – get back to where you belong amongst the vermin. You were extremely rude & abusive to me. I do not need to satisfy your criteria of loyalty. I am sure there are several on here that know my loyalty to Arsenal & Wenger.
I do not have any regard for the PGMOL as they have been biased & corrupt for all of their small history.
Rude & abusive was I? I don’t deny it, but I only EVER respond in kind to you or anyone else, and it’s not as if you never insult people here in the same way is it.
Anyway if you can’t take it back don’t give it out in the first place and just stay off my case as I never lead against you, just respond.
Tony
My take is that your article is really poorly timed. You’ve kicked off another round of arguing and bickering. I came on the site wanting to share in the feel good factor, and yet it’s just depressing to read the same arguments we’ve read all season being rehashed. Get a grip, man.
Luscious lisa
Don’t you think at a time like this is a good time to ‘rally the troops’ so to speak?
Yes it would be nice to just lay back and bathe in the glory of yet another, yes anther trophy, but sadly those times have long gone thanks to the media and the aaa’s.
As I pointed out above after beating Manchester United we had this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39840233.
And this from our own Henry recently:
Trophies all that count Thierry Henry: Arsenal glory in the FA Cup cannot make up for Arsene Wenger’s continued failure in the Premier League.
Just google what Paul Merson has to say about us time and time again.
Just google what Ian Wright has to say about us time and time again.
Just google Stewart Robson.
Tony Adams.
The list goes on.
So in principle I agree with Tony that something needs to be done but what I do not know. Saying the Club should do something is all well and good but who knows it might just make matters worse, if that is actually possible.
How do we know whether Arsenal have and have not already made approaches regarding our treatment from Referees, and it already has just made it worse ?
I mean, do we really expect Kronke to come out and say to the media that we’ve made an official complaint to the Premier League regarding how referees screw us week after week? Honestly is that what people think should happen.
It’s almost as fanciful an idea as the one where people think Arsenal should of official come out and said, ‘because of the building of the Stadium we wont have any money and therefore wont be able to challenge for the title for 5, maybe 10 years. And oh, why we’re at, you know, not winning things, ticket prices will go up’.
It would of been commercial suicide.
The bottom line is something needs to be done and the first thing is that we on UA just keep banging away about.
As for the Club doing something. I honestly think it’s nigh on impossible for them to do it.
To me our only chance would be gaining some allies in the media, but that is even less likely.
Talk about FAKE NEWS
Sky are saying Wenger has a year left on his current contract.
Proving that the media just say what they want – it doesn’t have to be true!
I hear all these dogs barking and i think, oh oh, them dogs scared.
A dangerous dog does not bark, it growls softly!
‘Sky are saying Wenger has a year left on his current contract.’
I’m looking this story. Could you give me some help please?
A link or quote would be useful.
looking FOR ths story
JimB – “the only agenda that national media has is to sell.” I’m sorry, but if you truly believe that, then you are painfully, painfully, painfully naive. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. Just keep living in that dream world of yours.
Leon, leave off the anti-Menace tirade. He has been Fidei defensor for a good many years on this site.
GoingGoingGooner
Menace has been trolling me for the past three months. I do not open any dialogue with him at any time other than to give him some back in kind, which I feel quite justified in doing.
I’m sure he will appreciate your support.
You’ve been failing to troll this blog
Lawerence is a lame hack dwarf.
The aaa Gooner and their hangers on have even less credibility when it comes to the footy then the sweet FA. By their own words and actions: disingenious know nothing tripe merchants
UTA
The aaa are like retarded orangutan’s constantly knee-jerking to every thing that doesn’t please their tiny minds.They’re a cancer to this great club and need to be issued with life banning orders or free tickets to watch the spud borefests at Wembley next season..
Nitram/proudkev
Great response to Luscious Lisa.
I am afraid these people will never agree to our viewpoint and will keep on slagging the club the manager and thr players.
The media is with them unfortunately.
P.S
Why have you changed your identity from Proudkev to Nitram?
Will appreciate you switch back to your previous identity with the club Logo.
I
Norman14
It looks like the ‘FAKE NEWS’ is a lot closer to home
The biggest problem I have is Arsenal Fan Tv that is pure cancerous